A level for Overgrowth comes in the shape of an XML file. This is a human readable format, so you can open a level up as a text file and see everything that's in it. This page will go through all the aspects of these XML files, with extra focus on the ones you can't change via the editor.

Contents

Example Level

This is what the "new level" file looks like, which can be found in ../Overgrowth/Data/Levels/nothing.xml. If you want to you can copy everything in the box below into a text file, save it with the .xml file ending and load it in the game.

Unimportant or Deprecated Tags

Since Overgrowth has been in development for such a long time, some of these tags are nothing but remnants of old systems that have been replaced with something else during development. For instance, levels used to store their names in their xml file, but now that's stored in the mod file instead.

This is a list of those tags

<Type> - This value is always equal to "saved".

<Name> - Is automatically set to the name of the file without the file ending. Is not used by the engine.

<Description> - Map description. Is not used by the engine.

<AmbientSounds> - Ambient sounds used to be global for a level, but now you should use "Load → Sounds → Ambient sound hotspot" hotspots instead so you can have different ambient sounds in different parts of the level.

<OutOfDate> - Specifies if the nav mesh is out of date, not used anymore as we now use the hash of the level to determine if the nav mesh is out of date.

<Script> - Specifies a script file that runs for this level, this is not used in official levels anymore. We recommend using a hotspot for this type of functionality instead.

<Shader> - Shader that is used in this map. This value should be set to "post", unless you plan to use a custom shader in your level. Since Overgrowth now uses an uber shader you should use the Custom Shader script parameter in most cases instead.

Terrain

To change the terrain in your level you need to manually edit the level XML file. Terrains are either generated from several textures (a height map, color map, weight map and one or more detail maps), or you can specify a specific object to use as terrain. Using a specific object is useful if you want to create holes in an existing terrain for your level, or if you have a specific model you want to use instead of a heightmap.

You can also have no terrain at all. So if the player won't be able to access the terrain, you can decrease loading times and improve performance in your level by removing the terrain tag entirely.

Here is an example of a terrain tag, taken from the 02_Slaver_Camp.xml level from the Overgrowth story:

<HeightMap> - A 16-bit grayscale image in the png format, with the value of each pixel corresponding to an elevation in the terrain.

<ShaderExtra> - Can be set to #SNOWY to add snow to the terrain, or #HEIGHT_BLEND for more pleasing transitions between terrain textures TODO: What do these do more exactly?

<DetailMap> - Deprecated, does nothing.

<ColorMap> - A .tga file which maps the color of each pixel to the color of a point on the terrain. This is used for rough texture, and can be used for example to make valleys green and mountain peaks grey.

<WeightMap> - A .tga in which colors (RGB + Black) are used to define which DetailMap to use on which part of the terrain.

<DetailMaps> - DetailMaps are used to tile textures across the terrain for more detail up close. Keep in mind that the color is tinted by the <ColorMap> texture.

Path to a black and white image that the engine uses to know where on the terrain the object should be distributed

normal_conform

How closely the object should follow its underlying terrain's normal, between 0 and 1

density

How close to each other the objects should be created

min/max_embed

The minimum/maximum random distance the objects should be offset vertically

min/max_scale

The minimum/maximum random scale of the objects

view_distance

How far away the objects start fading in

jitter_degrees

How many degrees of random rotation that will be applied to the objects

overbright

Higher value makes the object brighter

tint_weight

How much of the underlying terrain color should be applied to the object

Sky

The sun placement, intensity and color can be changed in the sun editor. The sky dome texture can also be changed in the editor via the "Set Sky Texture..." button in the edit menu. Below is a quick explanation of what each tag in the <Sky> tag does.

<DomeTexture> - Filepath to the texture of the skydome, some already exist in Data/Textures/skies/.

<SunAngularRad> - The lower this is, the darker the shadows are.

<SunColorAngle> - Where the color dot is in the sun editor, tints the color of the sunlight.

<RayToSun/> - The 3 attributes in this tag describes the location of the sun in the sky. Use the sun editor to change it.

Other

<NavMeshParameters> - The settings when generating the navigation mesh. These are most easily changed in the editor under the Nav Mesh Menu. See the Nav Mesh Menu page to see what each setting does.

<ActorObjects> - This tag contains all the objects in the level. Everything from characters and models to hotspots and groups.

<RecentItems> - This is a list of objects that have been used in the level. These objects can be found in the editor under "Load → Open Recent..." for easy access.